Middle Tennessee Blvd. upgrade by MTSU starts Jan. 11

Crews will start a $15.7 million construction project Jan. 11 to improve Middle Tennessee Boulevard between East Main Street and Greenland Drive. The 30-month project will include bike lanes, landscaped medians, turn lanes, new traffic signals and crosswalks at Lytle and Division streets, and pull-off lanes to load and unload at Faulkinberry Drive and Murphy Center.(Photo: Scott Broden / DNJ)Buy Photo

MURFREESBORO — The $15.7 million Middle Tennessee Boulevard improvement project between Greenland Drive and East Main Street will be the city's biggest construction job in 2016, an official said.

"Notice to proceed will be Jan. 11," City Engineer Chris Griffith said Monday during an interview at his office at City Hall.

The 30-month project will include bike lanes, landscaped medians, turn lanes and two additional signalized intersections with crosswalks at Lytle and Division streets for a road that goes by Middle Tennessee State University. Once done by around July 2018, the project will help a campus that reported a fall enrollment of 22,766 students.

"We're hopeful we can get it done earlier than that," Griffith said.

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The Middle Tennessee Boulevard improvement project is scheduled to be done around July 2018. "We're hopeful we can get it done earlier than that," said Murfreesboro City Engineer Chris Griffith.(Photo: Scott Broden / DNJ)

About 23,515 car trips per day happen on the tight four-lane road that stretches about eight-tenths of a mile from East Main Street to Greenland Drive, City Transportation Director Dana Richardson said during a Monday interview at his office at City Hall.

The upgrades also will include rebuilt sidewalks, curb, gutter, underground drainage, underground utilities, seat walls, and drop-off lanes to unload and load at MTSU's Faulkinberry Drive and Murphy Center.

Much of the improvement will resemble what Middle Tennessee Boulevard looks like between Mercury Boulevard and East Main Street, Richardson said.

The city initially had planned to improve all of the boulevard with a continuous center turn lane, but MTSU officials in 2002 wanted a project that would be safer for students using the crosswalks and aesthetically attractive, Richardson said.

"It's a better product," Richardson said.

Many MTSU students use existing crosswalks at East Main, Bell Street, Faulkinberry and Greenland to walk to and from the main campus on the east side of the boulevard to university parking lots and buildings on the west side.

During construction, the city will make announcements about lane closures through the Murfreesboro government website, and Twitter and Facebook, said Griffith, the city engineer.

The city will at times be willing to allow the contractor, Jarrett Builders of Nashville, to close Middle Tennessee Boulevard by the campus when the college and local schools are not in session for students, Griffith said.

"It's a tough job," said Griffith, noting how the city had to bid the project twice before realizing that many contractors were reluctant to take on a project with an initial budget of about $12 million. "It's a large job, and it has some traffic control concerns. Not everyone was excited to bid on it because of location with the university there. It's a difficult project to build."

Middle Tennessee Boulevard by MTSU is long overdue for an upgrade on a road that the city had to "spot pave every year or two because the road was failing," Griffith said.

When counting the planning and engineering work of consultants, the total cost comes to nearly $18.3 million. Federal funding of nearly $12.6 million is covering most of the project after the city won grants in July 2005 with the assistance of former Democratic U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon of Murfreesboro and Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, Richardson recalled.

MTSU is contributing more than $5 million for the project, and the city is spending $662,176.